Talk:Landlady and the Tramp/@comment-3041875-20170115150921
Very good episode. While I have some complaints, there really were some excellent and stand-out scenes this episode, and I mostly enjoyed all of the stories. The Good - While I love Misery, and expected some obvious similarities and references, for this story to really work, it had to take an original spin on the story, so it wouldn’t be boring and repetitive, and I think it was mostly successful in doing that. I liked some parts of the teaser, like Kristi getting mad at herself and slapping herself, and how it ended, but I was a bit worried she was going to be a repeat of Jennifer in 109, crazy so much it's quite ridiculous and much more for humour than to be an interesting character. The next scene was much better though, and I liked that she lived in the shadows of her reality star family. I also liked the detail over why she hadn’t edited Rena's online pages, and the twist of the gun being a water pistol. Some great details here that made the story unique and had me feeling for Rena, like him pissing in her glass for milk or her shoving her sock in his mouth; that was gross! Very nice ending, that was both unexpected and really raises the stakes of the story. As usual, good dialogue between the butlers. I liked Ben feeling more included when Joe asked him to dig up the pictures, referencing the previous episode when he didn’t feel as part of the group. Ben's characterisation was excellent throughout. It was really great the way Ben found out about Ali's abortion, and I enjoyed the interaction between him and Liz; I'm glad he had enough of a spine to refuse returning stolen mail for her. The dialogue between Ben and Ali during their fight was honestly brilliant, and is a true example of proper drama. Neither of them came across as unlikeable, but just like actual human beings with different perspectives on things that's influenced by their different journeys through life. Very nicely written scene, really! I also liked Ben confronting Liz and talking to her about being a better person, as again it made him very likeable and it seemed right, but also unexpected, for him to confront Liz this way, trying to have her choose to change her behaviour for herself. Joe's story was also entertaining, focusing on all three of the mysteries, which are coming along very well. The scene between Manny and Liz was very intriguing, and I enjoyed the interaction between Joe and Rochelle. Manny's character is much more interesting now, and I liked how the scene led to the linkage with Silvia, and also how Manny's story has a similar theme as Selena's; it's as if Selena's smaller story kind of foreshadowed a main theme of the season's mystery, which is cool, like a hint was there all along, even though it wasn’t connected. Excellent scene with Joe and the vision of Joanna, followed by a visit from the real Joanna. It made sense how he felt too close to her to properly detect her secrets, and I liked the focus on the make-up on her hand. The focus on the three mysteries didn’t at all feel like too much, and Joe's attention on each of them all feels believable and natural; I also really like the connections, such as Joey. While less entertaining than the other three stories, the story between Josh, Brad and Juan was still decent overall. The dialogue between Josh and Juan during the second act was strong, and I like how in the end Brad trusted Josh enough to remain friends with Juan. Selena attacking the delivery men was quite hilarious. Another excellently written scene was the one between Eli and Maria; also loved the Juanita Kwon appearance. It's great when something that didn’t seem all that important at the time, like Liz's meltdown at Kathryn's house, has great consequence and development for the story, as it makes sense how that could have got Eli quite disliked. I considered that maybe Eli would try and make amends with Liz, and have a relationship just for show, in order to save his reputation, but trying to show everyone she was always the bad guy is potentially more interesting. The Bad – There was a lot of exposition this episode, but I'll start with the teaser. I didn’t think the flashes of Kristi were necessary, especially since we got a lot of explanative dialogue from Kristi. Weighing the scene down with so much info-dumping, really made the opening of the story a bit more boring than it should have been. We should really have learned things as Rena did, piecing them together with him, a bit more gradually. Also, during Rena's failed escape, I was confused as to why it took Rena so long to run for the gun or threaten her with it once he had it. Kristi was also slow in pursuing her, but I suppose that makes a bit more sense knowing the gun Rena had wasn’t real, but still, the scene could have benefited from more tension and excitement. Also, would Kristi really not think Rena was that good an actor? I'd think, she'd have to think he was the absolute best to be so obsessed with him. Similarly, I didn’t care for Eli stating his plan so explicitly to an empty room or for Juan's dialogue in the car. Juan's lines were just too obsessive and loony, and after Jennifer and now Kristi, I really don’t think we need another of those characters, while Selena being his partner also seems a bit too silly. Then, Eli's scene was just far too much exposition, and it was the third time a character this episode had done something similar, so I really just had to shake my head at that, sorry. The conversation between Joe and Manny was a little bit too much for me; Manny just got too angry for it to be believable, I feel. If he really felt that disgusted over Joe being a cop and white, then how come nothing suggested it before? I also didn’t really appreciate Joanna pointing out how complicated the mysteries were twice. Lastly, I didn’t care for Liz so casually agreeing to team-up with Val – the episode also did the same thing between Juan and Selena. When characters agree to stuff like this with absolutely no passion, it's unbelievable and silly to me, as if characters are just putting their characterisation aside to be part of the plot. Both Selena and Liz had motive to help Juan and Val, but we should have seen the passion when they agreed, not them just shrugging and helping because 'they have nothing better to do'. Observations – I'm not sure I see Liz having it in her to redeem; she claims she wants to, but Ben didn’t really convince her to not spend Ali's credit card until he made her realise the ramifications that could have for her, not for Ali; so she's still pretty self-centred. Then, why would she want to destroy Ben if he's helping her be the good person she wants to be? Seems more like it's because he's stopping her from being the horrible person she wants to be. Val is also pretty one-dimensional, and now that we're two thirds through the season, it's a little worrying. She's only focused on avenging Justine by destroying Ben, but her actions haven’t had really any consequence so far, and, I'm worried there won't be much overall either; I just don't really see her surviving outside this plot as a character, which makes me care much less about her, since she's probably just going to meet her end at the end of the season after executing some plan of revenge that we waited all season for and that all of the butlers will make it through unscathed. I certainly hope that isn't where this story is going, but so far, that's where it feels like we're heading. Best Butler – Ben. His characterisation was the most obvious and I really liked his interaction with several of the characters. The dialogue during the fight with him and Ali was a true testament to both their characters and the strength of the writing. All the butler's, however, had pretty entertaining stories, though Rena and Joe's more so than Josh's. Overall – Sorry if I sounded harsh with my criticisms, but it's much harder for me to enjoy when I'm pulled out of the story by exposition or characters behaving out of character like I outlined above, and I also don't really expect it from you guys. On the other hand, the episode also had some of the strongest writing it's had, with some really stand-out scenes and excellent flows of dialogue, like that between Ali and Ben. I mostly enjoyed all of the stories, so overall, it was a very good episode, and almost excellent, just watch out for the exposition; 7.8/10.